Here in Bangkok, the world of gender is your playground.
Forget what the New York/London hipsters tell you, Bangkok IS trannie central.
Ladyboys and Tomboys are everywhere. Strangely, it seems people choose a "role," and then proceed to play out most of the traditional conventions, both positive and negative, of that role.
Many of my friends in Europe and America who are transgender, or who associate with that world; consider the term "passing," to be very passe. They therefore consider the Thai lady-boys or Tomboys to be somehow inferior. Indeed, one chap from Berlin said he preferred to take "a more political stance on trans-gender issues."
What? Like, Barrack Obama in a dress?
So, any transgender person concerned with passing should be disregarded? I know.
What a pretentious pile of shit.
I think it boils down to the fact that a developing country in Asia has been more progressive in accepting different gender roles for a lot longer than so called, "developed" western societies.
But then, I guess it doesn't count as an "issue," unless Cindy Sherman takes a photo of it, and Camille Paglia writes a million words sucking all the fun out of it.
Well here's a new one that I'm trying out here in Bangkok; maybe one day the rest of the world will accept me for what I am. Perhaps one day, Ms Paglia might grace me with a seriously wordy tome or two.
I am a closet fem-lesbian, trapped in the slightly aging, boystrous body of a mainly versatile, older gay man.
I've considered corrective surgery, you know, having bits cut off, put-on, cut off and put back on again; but to be honest, I'd rather spend the money on a motorbike and an Elvis wig.
Ever since I saw Whoopie Goldberg getting fingered by the pretty one in, "The color purple," I knew I was a little bit, "jazz," a little bit, "country," and a whole lotta "K.D. Lang."
Last night, for the first time in my life, I watched "Fried green tomatoes." Like me, it's a little bit dated, but who cares. I love it!
It has confirmed what I've always suspected. Beneath this urbane, uber-glam, facade of an international dirty old queen; there beats the heart of a honey-licken, dungaree-wearin, good ol' country dyke.
It doesn't stop there.
I fell in love with a tomboy motorbike taxi driver who used to work outside my Sukhumvit condo. He looked like a Thai James Dean. He was just SO COOL! He wore a battered black biker jacket and he'd smoke a fag while he whisked me around town on his bike. Needless to say there was never any mention of any helmets.
I heart-ed him so much! Good grief, I'm getting moist just thinking about him, maybe I should move back to that condo?
Furthermore, I've got a MASSIVE (mid-life-crisis?) girly crush on the Thai singer "Zee," which on top of everything else, makes me a dirty old bastard, considering he's a 20-something pop-star. I can't help it! When you see him on TV he's so cheeky. Move over Kd Lang and Samantha Ronson, your time is up.
I love the EMO drama of this particular "Zee," track, hilarious. Motorbike crash - check. Crying girlfriend - check. Love rival who looks a little bit uglier but strangely exactly the same as Zee - check. It's basically "Grease," minus the great music and the cast of 40 year old actors.
It's got everything a discerning, "closet lipstick lesbian trapped within the gym pumped body of a dirty old queen," looks for in an adolescent dry-hump fest these days.
I just want to ride off into the sunset with Zee. I want to drink beer with him. I want him to teach me how to fix my motorbike. I want to bake him cakes and then cuddle up with him on the sofa to watch Dolly Parton films.
Possibly the gayest thing every written on the internet, but that's just the way my mother put my hat on.
i spend a lot of time wandering amongst feminist blogs and there are always massive fights going on about transgender people and how they are erased from cultural narratives. i aint disagreeing with that one bit but i do often think about your experiences in Bangkok and how fluid gender appears to be...or at least from the way you write, there is a high degree of performativity. from that, then comes the idea actually of a very secure personality at the core of the performance that is decoupled from binary gender roles.
ReplyDeleteWell indeed. Of course it's ludicrous to generalize, In no way is it perfect here. Please don't think that I am blind to the complexities. In fact, many of the transgender people here assume the stereotype, and the acceptance is a very odd issue. For example, most families here would hate for their son or daughter to grow up trans - however, if they are transgender, then, the family has a meeting and that is it. From that moment on the change is made. No more questions asked. Quite civilised in a weird sort of way. It just seems a lot less complicated than European/ western culture - but that would be my subjective opinion. I'm not Thai. I could study it for years and never fully understand the reasoning.
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